


the art of throwing your brothers into the moat

by girl412



Category: Septimus Heap - Angie Sage
Genre: Angst, Gen, catch me sneaking in dyslexia headcannons like nobody's business, i think ?, lucy gringe is a good friend, marwick and silas are dyslexic i don't make the rules
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 21:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13796925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girl412/pseuds/girl412
Summary: or, Lucy and Marwick are best friends and they discuss battle strategies while drinking tea.





	the art of throwing your brothers into the moat

**Author's Note:**

> Because Marwick and Lucy chillin' out was never delved into in proper detail and we deserved it <3

“Did I tell you about the time I pushed Rupert into the moat?”

Marwick stared at Lucy, his expression somewhere between bemused and terrified.

“Lucy, why? ”

Lucy ignored the question, proceeding to explain exactly how she’d done it. Marwick knew when a question was being evaded, and he also knew better than to try to one-up Lucy Gringe, so he let her go on, while listening carefully to her technique. It seemed like she’d used brute force and her knuckles more than anything. 

Once she was done, she looked at him expectantly.

“Incredible. I would like to throw my brothers into the moat, as well.” Marwick waited for a moment, letting Lucy absorb the praise before he began the criticism. “However, as a Young Army veteran, I can think of several far more effective ways to push someone into a moat. I know you’re all up for drama, but if you think about it, suspense is a better form of drama than pure drama itself, you know? Also, strategize. You know they used to have this saying? ‘on the brink, stop and think,’ or something like that. You’re right there, so close to success. That’s usually the time when things get fucked up. So you gotta work with that, yeah? Strategize to knock down guys, that’s what 412 and I always say.” 

Simon returned to the table, carrying two mugs of tea, which he gingerly set down next to Marwick and Lucy. Like everyone else who knew them, he couldn’t pretend to understand their dynamic, but somehow Marwick was the best friend that Lucy had ever had. Lucy had tried to teach him embroidery once, much to Simon’s horror, but when he stumbled upon them sitting together with Lucy reading out something from a Marshland Manual for the benefit of Marwick, Simon knew he couldn’t disapprove. The scene reminded him of his own childhood days in the Ramblings, and of how sometimes, when Sarah was busy tending to his younger brothers and sister, he and Sam would help Silas double check his accounts and calculations. 

“Thanks for the tea,” Marwick said evenly. Things had, surprisingly enough, been civil between them ever since Lucy and Marwick’s newfound friendship. Simon had thought that he would need to win Marwick’s trust, like he had with Septimus, but it hadn’t been like that. He’d asked Marwick about it once and Marwick had shrugged it off, saying that he could see that Simon had changed, and that people fucked up all the time, and bad times didn’t mean being a bad person. Simon had felt infinitely grateful.

“Yeah, it’s no bother,” Simon said. “What’re you both talking about?”

“The art of throwing your brother into the Moat,” Lucy answered immediately.

“Brothers,” Marwick murmured under his breath, taking a sip of the tea.

“That’s relatable,” Simon said, sharing a look with Lucy. Marwick suddenly suspected that he knew the reason behind Rupert being pushed into the Moat. He’d never understood the Heap and Gringe families’ initial disapproval at Simon and Lucy getting together. Marwick felt that Simon Heap had made many mistakes in his life, but falling in love with Lucy Gringe wasn’t one of them, and that they both made each other happy and shouldn’t that be good enough? But he knew that their families, in particular, their brothers, hadn’t agreed at first, for the most part.

“I’ve wanted to push Septimus into the Moat for a while now,” Simon said, forgetting for a minute who he was talking to.

“Sep is a nice kid – ” Lucy began, but she was cut off by a seething Marwick. The glare he fixed on Simon reminded everyone who witnessed it why he had been known as Wolf Boy once upon a time. It was feral and unafraid and dangerous, and Simon was almost as terrified as he had been when DomDaniel’s bones attempted to curse him. Almost.

“If you even touch 412,” Marwick said, somehow sounding aggressively polite, “I will make you regret it. Don’t even think about it, Simon Theodor Heap.”

Simon took a shaky breath. “I wouldn’t, Marwick, I swear. I wanted to once upon a time, but I’m not going to do it.”

The degree of Marwick’s glare lessened. “You better not,” he said, sipping his tea.

Lucy fixed Simon with a reproachful and chiding look. Simon thought that if she hadn’t become his girlfriend and then later on, his wife, she might just have been the perpetual Mom-Friend in his friend group. At the same time, he knew that this time, he deserved it.

“You don’t know how many times Sep’s been woken up forcefully by a bucket of cold water,” Marwick said softly, more sadly and reflectively. “They used to do it to all of us, but I think the Cadet got a certain thrill from doing it to him. It happened to him far more frequently than to the average boy.”

“Fuck.” Simon sometimes forgot what Septimus’s childhood had been like. When he did remember, he found himself not being envious in the slightest.

“We used to swap mattresses sometimes,” Marwick continued, not looking at either of them, almost like he was talking to himself. “I looked out for him a lot.”

“You called him Sep,” Lucy said, almost wonderingly.

“Uh, what?”

“Septimus,” Lucy said, as an explanation. “You always call him 412. But this time you called him Sep.”

Marwick wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Is there something wrong with that?”

Lucy had the feeling that she’d said something that she shouldn’t have. “No, there isn’t. I was just surprised, is all.”

When Marwick finished his mug of tea, Lucy gave him a hug – one of their traditions, to some extent. Another tradition was their secret handshake, which Simon swore just looked like exaggerated martial arts high-fives. Simon saw Lucy whisper something in Marwick’s ear, and Marwick smiled, but he looked like he was going to cry. Simon knew when to give people their space. He took the empty mugs (Lucy was the fastest tea drinker Simon knew) and walked to the kitchen as noisily as he could, leaving them alone in the living room.

“Go get your boy,” Lucy whispered, and Marwick wrapped his arms around her again and buried his face in her shoulder, trying to make himself invisible in the hug. Lucy sighed, and held him closely. “Talk to him. It’s okay.”

Marwick took a deep breath, disentangling himself from the hug. “Yeah, fine, I’ll try. Thank you.”

Lucy had a feeling that he was expressing gratitude for something more than the advice.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time using the archive so i rlly hope i didn't fuck something up. initially posted on my [SH tumblr ](https://wendronwitch.tumblr.com/post/170187682218/did-i-tell-you-about-the-time-i-pushed-rupert)


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